N.Y. dams had little effect on flooding, officials say

But Lehigh Valley area residents believe their damage from the Delaware River wouldn't have been so bad if reservoir levels had been reduced.

September 06, 2006|By Tom Coombe Of The Morning Call

The high water levels in New York City's reservoirs have played a part in recent floods along the Delaware River, state officials said Tuesday night.

But the reservoirs have had little impact on flooding in Northampton County, said Cathy Myers, deputy secretary for the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and a member of the Delaware River Basin Commission.

It's an argument some flood victims aren't buying.

"If the reservoirs are empty, and it rains like it rained, you will still have floods," Myers said at a public meeting at Lafayette College in Easton. As soon as she said it, the audience responded with a chorus of "No way no way."

The meeting, organized by U.S. Rep. Charlie Dent, R-15th District, drew about 100 people to the college's Huegel Science Building. Roughly half identified themselves as victims of three recent floods: September 2004, April 2005, and in June.

Many flood victims put some of the blame on New York City's three reservoirs, which sit above the Delaware River. If the reservoir levels had been lower, they say, the floods wouldn't have been as bad. But the reservoirs were full, so when storms came, the rain had nowhere to go.

The DRBC has argued it would have been impossible during the most recent flood to drain the reservoirs enough to accommodate the water that the storms brought. The three reservoirs can drain a total of 2 billion gallons a day, Myers said.

The commission is in talks with New York on possibly adding more voids to the reservoirs so they'll hold more water.

Hopefully they can find a way to "manage for flood supply, ecology and for flood mitigation," said Bob Tudor, the DRBC's deputy executive director. He said the city and the commission could decide within a year, but "not within the next two months or one month."

New York has already agreed to reduce the amount of water it keeps in the reservoirs.

Myers said that even draining the reservoirs days in advance "would leave room [only] for the first half inch of rain."

But to residents, it just doesn't seem possible that the overflowing reservoirs haven't affected them.

"I'm sure a lot of people share my skepticism," said Chuck McIntyre, owner of the McDonald's restaurant on Third Street in Easton, which sustained damage in all three floods. "The reservoirs releasing water has got to have some effect on all of us."

Myers said there is an effect, but it's a matter of inches of water, not feet. Still, she said state and federal agencies will explore the problem. Even if lowering the reservoir levels makes only a small dent on local flooding, "we'll take every dent we can get."

This isn't to say residents blame the reservoirs for all of their flooding. Some of them mentioned increased development in this part of the state. With more roads, driveways, homes and parking lots, there are fewer places water can go.

"I'm not sold on the fact that the reservoirs didn't have some role," said Bruce Smith of Lower Mount Bethel, a victim in all three floods. But he added development might also have played a role. "It's a combination of factors," Smith said.